Like father, like son?

Anthony Gardner, who has been nominated by the United States government to be its next ambassador to the European Union, need not look far for expert advice on representing the US in Europe.

His father, Richard Gardner, now aged 86, combined a career as a professor at Columbia Law School with a varied career in public service. He was deputy assistant secretary of state for international organisation affairs during the Kennedy administration (when the Cuba crisis demanded some delicate discussions of international law with the United Nations). In the late 1970s, he and his Columbia Law School colleague Zbigniew Brzezinski were co-chairmen of Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy team before he became president. As some kind of reward, Gardner was sent as ambassador to Italy (1977-81) at a time when terrorist groups and the rise of the Communist Party seemed to pose a threat to western security.

In the early 1990s, Gardner père was appointed by the first Clinton administration to be ambassador to Spain, and helped Spain during its presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers to launch the New Transatlantic Agenda of 1995. He later attended the unsuccessful Seattle world trade talks.

Now Gardner fils is in line to assist EU-US trade talks, though first he may have to smooth feathers ruffled by allegations of illegal surveillance of Europeans and EU institutions. He will not have to go far for good advice.